Troops of the three nation’s Armed Forces -Army, Navy and Air Force, on Wednesday urged the Military High Command to canvas for the enrollment of gunshot wounds treatment on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
The personnel also charged the Defence Health Maintenance Limited (DHML), a corporate entity serving as Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO) for military officers to ensure that cardiovascular surgeries are enrolled on the scheme.
Chief of Medical Services, Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Olabode Babalola, said this in Abuja on behalf of other troops in an interview with journalists on the sideline of a stakeholders’ meeting with Military Secondary Health Care Providers.
He said, “There are some areas where we are still going to talk on which I think they will listen to us and implement. For example, the issue of injuries at operations are not captured by the NHIS. For instance, gunshot wounds now, they don’t take care of it.
“Their own argument is that the service should be able to do this on their own. However, it will be of help, they can also pick it up.
“Also, when there is any cardiovascular injury and there is need for cardiovascular surgeries (heart injuries), they don’t do that and it can cost a lot. If they can also help us in this aspect, I think it will also be a good benefit.”
On his part, Acting Director of medical services, Nigerian Navy, Commodore Ibrahim Nurudeen, bemoaned lack of high tech. diagnostic investigations in many military health centres, urging authorities to look into it because some investigations are not captured properly by the NHIS.
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